After months of nothing but silence, it finally appears that Epic is starting to take the wraps off of its new upcoming title called Fortnight. Epic spilled the details to Game Informer who put it in the May issue, but we have learned a lot about what is already in there.

The game itself is said to be best described as a free-to-play coorperative third-person shooter with a fort building theme that takes advantage of the day and night cycles while you try and fend off waves of enemy attacks.

The game is said to use a RPG style progressions system with a number of other familiar elements from the RPG world like looting, PvP battles, and multiple campaigns are all apart of Fortnight. The game has apparently evolved a lot since Cliff Blezinski, Mike Capps, and Rod Fergusson where at Epic.

Epic is taking sign-ups by those who want to be part of testing and playing the Alpha version here.

Despite the continued cries from Unreal Tournament fans, Epic is not working on a new UT title, so confirmed Epic founder Tim Sweeney during a discussion at GDC. Fans had hopes that a new Unreal Engine might lead to a new Unreal Tournament game.

Sweeny confirmed that while the team at Epic has a log of love for Unreal Tournament, they are not currently planning on shipping an Unreal Tournament game. Currently they are not developing anything in the Unreal game universe at all at the moment.

Epic is working on Fortnight as we all know, but it also has a second project in development. They second project is unknown as what platform it is being developed for. Beyond Unreal Tournament, you can also rule out Gear of War since they sold the rights to that to Microsoft.

After ex-Epic Gamer Cliff Blezinski squelched any possibility that he would be headed to join Ron Ferguson at Black Tusk, word now comes that the hush-hush talks that Bleszinski has being having since he left Epic are apparently bearing some fruit. The bearing of fruit is that Bleszinzki has apparently decided what his next move will be.

According to Bleszinski himself in an interview with Gamerhub, he says that, “Right now I’m looking at procuring funding for a new project. Expect some news, hopefully in the next four to six weeks.”

While he didn’t get into any specific details, he did say that the funding would come from a private investor or venture capital firm; and Bleszinski says that the new title would also have a crowd funding component. The crowd funding aspect would help ensure success and lessen the possibility of failure, thus lessening the overall risk of the project.

Bleszinski would like to bring the project directly to consumers and bring gamers into the development. He thinks this is possible with a pay-for-alpha or pay-for-early-access programs as part of the mix. This helps build not only a community to support the game, but it allows the community to help shape the game.

We assume that Blezinski will be leading a new studio of his own in the production of this game; it does not look like he will be partnered with a publisher, but will instead use the indie route to get the end result to the people. We hear rumors that it might be a PC-only offering that could be an arena-based shooter of some sort. Of course, these are only rumors at this point, and we think it is too early to rule anything out.

Epic Games will not be developing the next chapter in the Gears of War saga. Instead, Epic has sold the Gears of War IP to publisher Microsoft. Microsoft announced the acquisition in a post by Microsoft Studios head, Phil Spencer.

In addition to Microsoft acquiring the Gears of War IP, it was announced that new Microsoft studio Black Tusk will assume the development role and become the Gears of War franchise studio going forward. In addition, Microsoft has confirmed that Rod Fergusson (who was the executive producer of Gears of War 3) will be overlooking the franchise at Black Tusk. (Fergusson left Epic and then went to Irrational where he helped get BioShock Infinite out the door, and then he was to head up a new studio for 2K, but it looks like that the draw of being able to work on Gears of War again was simply too strong for him.)

As for the future of the franchise, Microsoft promises that we will hear more about the next Gears of War title later this year. We suspect it will be an announcement of a Gears of War title for the Xbox One to arrive in 2015. There will be no Gears of War title this year.

Black Tusk was working on something, as announced previously. We still don’t know exactly what it is, but we are told that plans are for the development of that title to continue, so it has not been shelved yet. Clearly, however, the focus of the studio will be the Gears of War franchise going forward.

As has been thought for some time, Epic is working on a new Triple-A shooter that is currently in development. During a talk at Develop, Epic founder Tim Sweeney confirmed this was true. What Sweeney did not confirm is if the new title in development was another chapter in the Gears of War franchise for the Xbox One. Many believe this is the case.

What we do know is that Epic is currently working on Fortnight, a sort of “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead”, according to Sweeney. We also know that Epic has developed both Gears of War and Unreal Tournament titles, both of which are shooters.

Really, the confirmation is nothing more than news that suggests that Epic is developing a new shooter as well as Fortnight. From whispers we hear, if an announcement of a new Gears of War title is coming, it will not be announced till next year, if it is in fact an exclusive for the Xbox One. That much we are reasonably sure of.

A pay outfit has worked out that the average age of workers at Silicon Valley is 30. According to PayScale this means that like the film Logan’s Run, the region offs its workers when they hit 30. Just six of the 32 companies it looked at had a median age greater than 35 years old.

Eight of the companies, the study said, had median employee age of 30 or younger. Women were generally less than 30 percent of the work force, and in fields like semiconductors, represented much less. The company with the oldest workers on the PayScale list, Hewlett – Packard, came in at 41 years. In comparison to the rest of the workforce, the Bureau of Labour Statistics said that the overall median age of American workers is 42.3 years old.

The seven companies with the youngest workers, ranked from youngest to highest in median age, were Epic Games,26; Facebook, 28; Zynga, 28; Google, 29. At AOL, Blizzard Entertainment, InfoSys, and Monster.com the average age was 30. Normally only shoe stores and restaurants have workers with a median age less than 30.The companies with older workers tend to be older companies, because some people still stay with one employer for many years.

Cisco Systems has a median worker age of 35, and both Samsung and Microsoft come in at 34. Firms that are growing or innovating around new areas tend to have younger workers. Older companies that aren’t changing with the times get older workers, Payscale claimed.

Sources tell us that based on a recommendation of Epic’s former Production Director, Rod Fergusson, Ken Levine says that BioShock Infinite could benefit from another three or four weeks of development. Fergusson fell in love with Infinite and is reportedly living in a hotel in the Boston area as he continues to work on the game.

So, yet again, BioShock Infinite has been delayed from the original release date. If there is anything good about the news it seems that March 26th is set in stone; and we will see it release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC when it arrives.

Perhaps the best news is that the release isn’t being rushed to make a release date; and instead, Levine wants to get it right, rather than just get it out. While we have not seen much of the actual game since the announcement, more should be revealed in next month or so as we inch closer to the release of the game.

Square Enix has reached an agreement to license the Unreal Engine 4, as well as Unreal Engine 3, from Epic Games. The deal gives the publisher rights to develop multiple titles using the Unreal Engine technology.

In addition to the licensing of the engine, Square Enix will receive “local support” from Epic Games in Japan to assist with the development. The move might be a bit surprising to some, as it has been known for some time that Square Enix has been funding the development of its own next generation engine which is known as the Luminous Engine. According to our sources, the company plans to continue the development of the Luminous Engine which will be used for some Square Enix titles.

It is not known which titles will make use of which engine, but the deal give the publisher options going forward into the new next generation consoles. The majority of Square Enix titles in the past have used proprietary engines developed by the publisher; but the Unreal licensing deal provides the company with an option it has not taken full advantage of in the past.

When Adrian Chmielarz surprisingly left the Epic-owned People Can Fly, which was the studio he founded, everyone wondered what he might do next. We now know what his next move is going to be.

Adrian has founded a new studio called “The Astronauts” which already has a new yet-unannounced title in development for a 2013 release. He apparently has no issues with Epic Games, as this new title will use the studio’s recently acquired license for the Unreal Engine 3.

In addition to Chmielarz, the studio has also been able to secure the services of former People Can Fly artist Andzej Pozanski and animator Michal Kosieradski. The studio has been up and running for over a month now, and until the announcement of the Unreal Engine 3 licensing deal we had no clue what was up.

As for what The Astronauts is working on and who might be publishing it, we don’t have an inkling of an idea. Sources tell us that we can expect to hear more soon, but we are not yet sure how soon that will be.

Epic Games has now confirmed by way of an announcement on its web site that Cliff “CliffyB” Blezinski has departed Epic Games after working there for two decades. This isn’t a sabbatical; he is actually leaving the company for a much needed break, according to Blezinski.

The sheer shock of this news has left most of us with little to say. How do you say that he has changed the gaming world without thinking about all of the great things that he has accomplished? While no one knows what Blezinski might be doing next, multiple rumors are suggesting that he will take some time off and then eventually (at some point in the future) start his own new studio. Of course, we think it is much too early to speculate.

Our sources tell us that the parting was friendly, with no hard feelings on either side. Of course, there are rumors of a possible collaboration with Adrian Chielarz of People can Fly, who also recently left Epic. While it is important to point out that these are only rumors and we suspect that Blezinski will take a break, we believe he will dive back in at some point in the future. It is hard to speculate what he might be doing when he comes back on the scene.